Method of making spouted hollow-ware



y 21,1970 'P. 1... BASTERFIELD ETAL 3,521,586

METHOD OF MAKINGSPOUTED HOLLOW-WARE Filed Aug. 22, 1967 BYM PJM/ United States Patent 3,521,586 METHOD OF MAKING SPOUTED HOLLOW-WARE Parker L. Basterfield and Norman E. W. Basterfield,

Johannesburg, Transvaal, Republic of South Africa, assignors to Basterfield Holding (Proprietary) Limited, Johannesburg, Transvaal, Republic of South Africa Filed Aug. 22, 1967, Ser. No. 662,496 Claims priority, application Republic of South Africa, Aug. 31, 1?, 66/5,256 Int. Cl. B21d 51/00 US. Cl. 113-116 2 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE A method of making spouted hollow-ware consists in bending a blank of sheet material to form a cavitied body having a flange parallel to the base of the body and substantially flush with the upper edge of the body, and then bending the sides of the flange upwardly into the shape of an open-topped channel to form a spout.

This invention relates to spouted hollow-ware.

Common articles of spouted hollow-ware are jugs, kettles and some pots such as tea-pots. Typical methods of making such articles include pressing and moulding. In providing the spout, a portion of the cavitied body of the article is cut away to leave a notch and a preformed spout is attached to the article around the notch; or a portion of the body at and below the mouth of the cavity is pressed outwards to the required shape. In moulding processes, the spout is formed integrally with the body.

In one favoured method of making articles of hollowware, the starting material is a blank cut from a sheet of a suitable material, generally a metal. The blank is deformed to the required basic shape by processes such as pressing or spin-pressing. In forming the cavity of the article, the material displaced from the centre of the blank becomes considerably thinner; that sur rounding the cavity remains as a flange of much the same thickness as the original blank. In providing the spout, a notch is cut away on the side of the article and a preformed spout is attached to the article around the notch by a process such as welding. The cost of cutting the notch, preforming the spout, and attaching it to the article, is a substantial proportion of the total cost of the article.

The blank from which the article is made is usually a square, as convensience dictates this shape in cutting up the sheet. The means that the flange around the mouth is of irregular width, being widest at the corners of the blank. In conventional practice the flange is cut away entirely or is trimmed to form a rim of uniform width around the circumference of the mouth. In any event there is a considerable wastage of sheet material, adding substantially to the overall cost.

Conventional spouts suffer from the disadvantage that, on pouring liquid from the spouted article, drops of liquid tend to run down the undersurface of the spout and on to the outer usrface of the body of the article. In some hollow-ware, notably kettles, this disadvantage is overcome by providing a curved tubular spout, the outer end of which, on pouring, is downwardly inclined. The inner end of the spout joins the body of the article some distance below its mouth, and below the level to which the article is designed to be filled. This type of spout is necessarily long and access to it for cleaning is difficult.

It is an object of the invention to provide a method of making an article of hollow-ware having a spout from a blank of sheet material.

According to the invention, an article of hollow-ware includes a cavitied body and a spout having its inner end located above the level to which the article is adapted to be filled, the height of the undersurface of the spout above the base of the body being at least as great at the inner as at the outer end of the spout.

Further according to the invention, the undersurface is substantially straight along the length of the spout. In a preferred form it is straight and substantially parallel to the base of the article.

Also according to the invention, the spout is an opentopped channel, its walls converging towards the outer end of the spout. At the inner end, the walls form an upward extension of the body of the article at its mouth. Their inner ends preferably decrease smoothly in height to allOW a neat junction with the body.

In a preferred form, the body of the article is cylindrical, and the walls of the channel join the body tangentially, the undersurface of the spout being parallel to the base of the body.

In a method according to the invention, an article of spouted hollow-ware is made by indenting a central zone at a blank of sheet material to form a cavitied body bearing a flange, and bending the flange to form a spout.

Further according to the invention, the height of the undersurface of the spout above the base of the body is at least as great at the inner end as at the outer end of the spout. The undersurface is preferab y straight along the length of the spout.

Also according to the invention, the blank is substantially square, and the spout is formed from a portion of the flange which includes a corner zone of the blank.

This portion is preferably trimmed and bent to channel shape, the channel walls converging from the mouth of the cavity towards the end of the spout. The bottom of the channel preferably meets the side of the body of the article at substantially a right angle, the side being perpendicular to the bottom of the body.

Since the inner end of the spout is as high as any other part of the spout, tilting of the article during pouring ensures that the outer end of the spout is downwardly inclined, and liquid cannot run along the undersurface of the spout and spill down the side of the article.

An embodiment of the invention is described below with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 is a plan view of a metal blank from which a jug is to be made;

FIG. 2 is a view in elevation of the blank after formation of the body of the jug;

FIG. 3 is a plan view of the partly formed jug of FIG. 2, illustrating the outline to which the flange is trimmed;

FIG. 4 is a view in elevation of the finished jug; and

FIG. 5 is a fragmentary perspective view of the jug of FIG. 4, illustrating the configuration of the spout.

FIG. 1 shows a square blank of metal 10, such as stainless steel, from which a jug with an integral spout is to be made. The blank is cut to size from a sheet of the metal of a suitable thickness. A cylindrical body of the jug is formed from the metal in the circular central zone indicated in dotted lines at 12. The body is formed by conventional processes such as pressing or spin-pressing which indent and attenuate the metal. The body is seen at 14 in FIG. 2, the original periphery of the blank remaining as a flange 16 of greater thickness than the metal of the body 14.

Up to this stage the process follows conventional lines. However, in the method of the invention, the flange 16 is not trimmed off entirely, as it is in conventional practice, but is trimmed to an outline such as that indicated in solid lines in FIG. 3. A stub 18 is left for the attachment of a handle, and opposite the stub 18, in the zone of a corner 20 of the original blank (indicated by dotted lines 22), a

protrusion is left for the formation of a spout. The protrusion has a blunt outer ends 24, the corners of which are smoothly rounded at 26. The sides 28 of the protrusion sweep inwardly towards the mouth of the body and join it at points 30 that are virtually diametrically opposite each other on its circumference. To complete the spout, the sides 28 of the protrusion are bent upwards, eg in a press, through 90 along the dotted lines 32 which extend tangentially from the mouth of the body towards the outer end 24, thus forming the walls of an open-topped channel. If desired, of course, the walls 28 might be shaped and bent in a dilferent configuration, for instance to form a tubular spout.

The completed jug is seen in FIGS. 4 and 5, with a handle 36 welded at one end to the stub 18 and at its other end to a point on the body 14. It will be seen that the spout undersurface 38 is flat and substantially parallel to the base 40 of the body of the jug. The walls 28 of the channel spout converge towards its outer end 24. At its inner end, the walls form an upward extension of the body 14 of the jug. On tipping the jug to pour from it, the outer end of the spout will be downwardly inclined and liquid will be unable to run down the undersurface of the spout. The spout is moreover located at the highest point to which the jug may be filled, and well above the level to which it will normally be filled so that there is no possibility of spillage through the spout when the jug is filled. The spout, being open-topped, is readily accessible for cleaning, and there are no nooks and crannies in which dirt may accumulate. On pouring from the jug, its contents enter the spout over a relatively long are of the brim, leading to a steady and, if need be, rapid discharge of the contents. The saving in labour and material over conventional techniques is moreover considerable.

The method described above could naturally be applied to the manufacture of other items of hollow-ware, such as kettles and tea-pots. Articles having the spout of the invention could also, of course, be made by different processes such as moulding.

We claim:

1. A method of making a spouted cylindrical article of hollow-ware, consisting in indenting a blank of sheet material to form a cylindrical cavitied body having a flat base and an upper edge remote from the base and bearing a flange parallel with the base of the body and substantially flush with the upper edge of the body, trimming the flange to leave a protruding portion of the flange for the formation of a spout with said protruding portion of the flange extending peripherally about the upper edge of the cylindrical body on opposite sides of the cylindrical body for a distance such that when the opposite side edges of said protruding portion of the flange are bent up, the ends of said protruding portion of the flange will form upward extensions of said cylindrical body, and bending up opposite side edges of said protruding portion of the flange about bend lines that converge in a direction away from the cylindrical body and that are substantially tangential to the upper edge of the cylindrical body to form a spout whose side walls at the inner end of the spout are upward extensions of said cylindrical body while maintaining a central portion of the bottom of the spout parallel to the base of the body.

2. A method as claimed in claim 1, and trimming said flange to form said protruding portion with a base portion that embraces about half the upper periphery of the cylindrical body.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,298,801 4/1919 Serio 11320 2,060,038 11/1936 Christman 113-120 FOREIGN PATENTS 495,095 4/ 1930 Germany.

CHARLES W. LANHAM, Primary Examiner M. J. KEENAN, Assistant Examiner US. Cl. X.R. l13120 

